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Moorish Nationalists Claim Sovereign Rights to DC Mansion

A man and a woman who said they were Moorish nationalists claimed sovereign rights to a multimillion-dollar mansion up for sale near Rock Creek Park Wednesday. Mark Segraves reports. (Published Thursday, Nov. 9, 2017)

A man and a woman who said they were Moorish nationalists claimed sovereign rights to a multimillion-dollar mansion up for sale near Washington, D.C.'s Rock Creek Park Wednesday.

No one lives in the house currently, but the couple that owns the home lives nearby, and when the wife received an alert about the alarm going off, she rushed over expecting to find a real estate agent. Instead, she found a man and woman who claimed they owned the land because their ancestors were the original inhabitants.

“This is our ancestral estate,” the man can be heard saying in security video.

“We sent you a letter, reversal of estate, to your office,” the woman said.

The man and woman can be heard repeatedly saying they were Moorish nationalists who had a sovereign right to the home.

Moorish American Nationals believe black Americans are descendants of an ancient Moroccan empire. Most members are law-abiding citizens, but a splinter group believes their ancestors were here before the U.S. government so many federal and local laws don’t apply to them.

A similar incident took place in 2013 when Lamont Butler moved into a vacant mansion in Bethesda, Maryland. He said his religious beliefs as a member of the Moorish Nation entitled him to the home. The police disagreed.